Wondered whether Joe McKnight really deserved to be compared to Reggie Bush in the first place.

Waited while McKnight flashed evidence on both sides of the argument.

One minute he was dazzling, the next he was disappearing or fumbling the ball in a crucial moment of a big game. He bounced from astounding to confounding almost as quickly as he can juke a linebacker in open space.

Which is exactly the script he seemed to be following Saturday night in the No. 3 Trojans’ 18-15 comeback victory over No. 8 Ohio State in front of a record crowd at the Horseshoe.

A couple nice runs, then an inexplicable whiff on an attempt to block the Buckeyes’ Devon Torrence, who blew by him and sacked quarterback Matt Barkley for a 4-yard loss to pin USC on its own 14-yard line with less than seven minutes to play.

“After that play, I thought they were going to take me out of the game,” McKnight said. “I just gave up a sack, I thought for sure they were going to take me out.”

Instead, Pete Carroll did what he’s always done with McKnight: Gave him another chance.

This time McKnight darted through the hole and finally found his space in Trojans lore with the performance of his young career – on USC’s most important drive in years.

“Tonight was the first time that Joe has strapped us on his back and taken us down the field,” USC running backs coach Todd McNair said. “It was a huge moment for him, and for us. If he can harness that and deliver in those situations, it can be a defining moment for us.”

First came the 11-yard rush off the right side to get USC out to the 16-yard line and out of a second-and-19 hole.

On the next play, he dashed 21 yards up the middle off a pass from Barkley to bring USC out to the 37-yard line, and a lump into the throats of Ohio State’s raucous crowd.

The Buckeyes played better than USC for much of Saturday’s game and were on the verge of shaking their big-game jinx. But just as quickly as McKnight could shift his hips, the Trojans were back in control.

Of the 14-play, 86-yard drive USC staged in the final minutes of Saturday’s thrilling game, seven went to McKnight for 53 yards.

“High school was the last time I felt this good after a game, and that was a while ago,” McKnight joked. “It was a big one for me, but I’m making up for two (disappointing) years.”

Apparently we weren’t the only ones wondering and waiting.

After two years of covering up his personal frustrations with a dark tinted visor and a guarded personality in front of the media, McKnight finally revealed the extent of his frustration with himself and his performance at USC during his freshman and sophomore seasons.

“I came in and everyone expected me to do a lot,” he said. “The fans, the coaches, myself, and I didn’t do it. “They (brought) me out here all the way from Louisiana, they expected me to make plays. Once I didn’t do that my first two years, I knew I had to make up for it.”

While he flashed signs of the big-play ability that has engendered comparisons to Bush throughout his first two years, he never did it consistently and he rarely did it when it mattered most.

“Man, after last year I was so down and depressed,” McKnight said. “I had turf toe, then I got suspended, then I dislocated four toes (in the Rose Bowl). I was like, `Man, what is going on here?’

“After the Rose Bowl, I didn’t come out of the house for days. Then I went home (to Louisiana) and didn’t come out of the house for days. But after a while of that, I knew I could never let that happen again. I knew I needed to come out and focus, work hard and never let that happen again.”

In February, he found a new level of focus when his son Jaiden was born.

“That really changed me,” he said. “I had someone depending on me now. I had to grow up.”

Saturday night, after two years of waiting and wondering, in a game USC could not have won without him, McKnight finally delivered.

The question is: Was Saturday another false start or the end of the long wait?